Sen. Charles Schumer pushes $250 check for seniors

Today Sen. Charles Schumer will push the Senate to vote on a measure that would put an extra $250 in the pockets of seniors.

Schumer says the check would help seniors cope with rising living expenses after the Social Security Administration announced, for the second year in a row, that there would be no cost of living adjustment (COLA) for recipients in 2011.

Seniors, Schumer said, are facing a “perfect storm” of shrinking savings and rising cost. He called the formula used to determine COLA, which looks at the general rate of inflation, “flawed.”

Overall inflation in the economy may be non-existent but for seniors “prices are not falling, they aren’t even flat,” Schumer insisted.

That is because seniors tend to spend a greater percentage of their income on medical care, where costs have consistently outpaced the rest of the economy, he said.

Schumer said that in the long run, he would like to see the formula revamped but that for now, the check would be an immediate way to alleviate some of the hardship.

He added that the money would stimulate the state economy. About 3.6 million New Yorkers would receive a total of $896 million dollars, which would be pumped “back into the economy, creating jobs.”

The Senator acknowledged that this afternoon’s vote would be largely symbolic. Senate Republicans are expected to filibuster the proposal — “everything is these days” — but Schumer said that “at least (a vote) would show the seniors who is on their side.”

2 Responses

Pitiful…
Trying to curry favor with persons 65+ years of age with a $250 one time payment?
How about removing the 35% additional tax rate imposed upon the employer’s portion of a senior citizen’s benefits?
After all, that portion was already taxed once when the beneficiary earned his or her wages when gainfully employed.
Reducing the percentage of annual paymernts subject to the income tax from the current 85% to 50% would be translated to be a meaningful statement by Senator Shumer, etal., about their desire for fairness, equity, respect for past contributions to the nation’s economy and concern for the older person community’s financial well being.